Known in the art is a titanium nitride-based coating for a metal-cutting tool (cf. e.g., H. F. Bunshan et al. Thin solid films, 1977, 45, No. 3, pp. 453-462).
Tools with coating of titanium nitride show a high abrasion-resistance in machining of workpieces of structural steels which exceeds by 5-7 times that of tools without coating.
However, in machining, by means of a tool with coating of titanium nitride, parts made of stainless steels and refractory alloys wear-resistance of such tools is but insufficient. The reason therefor resides in a high degree of an adhesion interaction of the coating with the machined workpiece which occurs at the contact surfaces of the tool during cutting. As a result, temperature in the cutting zone is increased and mechanical strength of the coating is substantially reduced at the account of the effect produced by water vapours and oxygen.